Dick Cavett on "The Wild Wordsmith of Wasilla"

The "serial syntax-killer from Wasilla High"

We can thank Dick Cavett for his witty, succinct opinion piece on NYTimes.com on Sarah Palin's "victory tour." Of her impact on the Republican presidential ticket, Cavett writes:

"I suppose it will be recorded as among political history’s ironies that Palin was brought in to help John McCain. I can’t blame feminists who might draw amusement from the fact that a woman managed to both cripple the male she was supposed to help while gleaning an almost Elvis-sized following for herself. Mac loses, Sarah wins big-time was the gist of headlines.

"I feel a little sorry for John. He aimed low and missed."

Cavett dubs Palin "the serial syntax-killer from Wasilla High," and backs that up by citing some of Palin's mind-bendingly convoluted answers in interviews. He's not without admiration for Palin's speaking style:

"It’s admittedly a rare gift to produce a paragraph in which whole clumps of words could be removed without noticeably affecting the sense, if any."

Would that Palin had a tenth of Cavett's intellect and rapier wit. Cavett describes Palin's avoidance of a question put to her by Matt Lauer, adding,

"If it happens again, Matt, I bequeath you what I heard myself say once to an elusive guest who stiffed me that way: 'Were you able to hear any part of my question?'”

There's more of course, but I wouldn't want give away ALL the funny lines. Read the whole thing here.

H/t to a tweet from @jayrosen_nyu.

Technorati tags: Dick Cavett, Sarah Palin, NYTimes.com, syntax, public speaking